Hodel v. Irving
Supreme Court
481 U.S. 704 (1987)
Federal allotment statutes from the 1800s divided Sioux reservation land into individual allotments held in trust, which fractionated further with each generation since the interests couldn't be sold or partitioned; Congress's 1983 Indian Land Consolidation Act's Section 207 responded by barring descent or devise of fractional interests amounting to 2% or less of the original allotment, requiring those interests to escheat to the tribe instead. Sioux tribe members Irving and others (plaintiffs) sued the Secretary of the Interior (defendant), arguing the escheatment of 41 such fractional interests was an uncompensated taking; the court of appeals ruled for the tribe members, and the government appealed.
Whether a federal statute that completely prohibits descent or devise of a class of fractional property interests, requiring escheatment instead, effects an unconstitutional taking without just compensation.